How to Grow Healthy Cactus: Soil, Watering & Propagation Tips | Part 2

[00:00:00]Hey, what's up? It's Takashi with Cactus Warehouse. Thanks for checking out part two. I hope you enjoy this interview where Tim and I walk around and uh just uh keep telling you some cool cacti facts.

[00:00:18]A lot of people ask about staking plants and when to do it, why to do it, and I figure let's actually talk about this one right here. And uh, you know, kind of walk me through the process and pretend like you're helping me out here because you actually are.

[00:00:37]>> Well, I mean, first in the process of of planting, you can plant it too deep. You can't easily plant it too shallow.

[00:00:43]That's the general rule. And a lot of people plant too deep.

[00:00:47]>> Why is that? Do you know why that is?

[00:00:49]>> Because the roots are fine. They get to where they are, but if you plant it too deep, they're smothered. It's going to be water logged sometimes. And >> Okay.

[00:00:57]>> And I'm not sure, but I know that generally the landscapers I talked to say plant them on the top more.

[00:01:04]>> Okay. And then so this and then when you do that, sometimes you probably come across something that might end up like this, whether it's in the ground or a pot.

[00:01:12]>> Yeah. Now, what happened with this one is I keep undoing it because I want the roots on this side to get stronger.

[00:01:21]>> Uhhuh.

[00:01:21]>> And if you keep propping it up, this won't it'll naturally say, "I don't need stronger roots on this side." So, with trees in general, if you if you keep propping it up, it makes it weaker in certain other aspects and it doesn't stand on its own.

[00:01:40]But I'm a little bit early at prop doing that.

[00:01:43]>> I keep tying it up and you keep cutting it off.

[00:01:45]>> You keep tying it up nice and But we want to tie it up again, right?

[00:01:48]>> Yes, I do want you to tie it up again.

[00:01:50]I'm wrong again. So, take everything with a grain of salt when I say it.

[00:01:54]>> What do you think? This is really >> I wouldn't tie it too tall. Yeah, about like that.

[00:01:58]>> Why? Why this? Why this amount?

[00:02:00]>> Well, maybe a little less.

[00:02:02]>> Less.

[00:02:02]>> Or no, a little more.

[00:02:03]>> A little more.

[00:02:04]>> Yeah. any uh >> uh >> rhyme or reason behind uh >> No, I just when they when they strap them really tight, I feel like if they don't pull them off, it's going to actually hurt that that part of the plant they use.

[00:02:17]>> Am I doing it in the right height? Is it >> Yeah, you're doing it just right >> and just leave it like that.

[00:02:21]>> Yeah.

[00:02:21]>> What about the the branches down here?

[00:02:23]>> You know what? I would leave those branches. I think sooner or later these these guys are going to come straight up. You're going to have enough base.

[00:02:30]You could probably cut this off. Boom.

[00:02:33]Cut it off at an angle. And >> why cut it off at an angle?

[00:02:37]>> Because if you if >> I know why I'm just I'm just I'm just giving you guys the real scoop, you know, from my sensei.

[00:02:43]>> So, if you cutting it off in an angle helps in regards to not having the water sit on it and if the rain hits it, especially if it's straight up, let's say you cut this off straight, the water could pull in the middle of it before it calcifies and it could ruin the plant.

[00:02:58]So, you cut it off at an angle, the wa the rain season hits. Oh. When you do >> Wait, hold on. Is the word calcifies or callous?

[00:03:06]>> Same difference.

[00:03:07]>> Is it?

[00:03:08]>> Yeah.

[00:03:09]>> Calcifies or calluses over.

[00:03:11]>> Um, but when you do it at an angle also, you only do that in springtime. You don't do your cutings in winter. Your cutting should be done in spring. Little late spring.

[00:03:22]>> Early autumn's fine for here. No.

[00:03:25]>> Yeah, it is. But the spring's the best time to get it because then you just drop them in the ground >> after it calcifies, which can take whatever the weather gives you.

[00:03:33]Sometimes it's quickly, sometimes it's slowly. The only way you can tell >> is by testing it and seeing if it's calcified. You can't say in two weeks it'll be calcified. What if you had cold cold weather during that?

[00:03:44]>> What if it was more humid during that?

[00:03:46]So you you have to actually look at plants and go, what does that plant need? You know, when do you water a plant? When it needs it. Not every week.

[00:03:56]not every other week when it needs it.

[00:03:58]>> And the and the best uh place to let it callous >> the the best place to let it callus depends on the on the on the on the plant itself. You can you can do like that over there, you know, and that's they're calcifying pretty good for simple simple Simon stuff is just drop it right where it is and let it calcify right there in springtime and then take it and plant it when it's calcified up.

[00:04:25]Walk over the plant cuz then you don't have any labor to take it to certain different spots and you can you can calcify it sometimes right next to the right next to the ground.

[00:04:35]>> Nice. This is from Madagascar. It's an Alawadia prusera. And I said I don't like anything but cactus. I'm wrong again. This one's a nice plant. I love this plant. It can grow big. It's like a tree. It's still hardy. It's still water-wise. It's still got all the different ingredients. Not as strong as cactus, but it's got it. And another thing, when you plant, this one's got shallow roots, man. You're not going to have to dig up your septic system or your water line or any other line because you got to always know where the lines are underneath. And a lot of trees will tear up. You you'll have an expensive bill fixing a water line.

[00:05:14]>> I know when you made me redo this, we hit so many um so many of the sprinkler lines.

[00:05:20]>> Yeah.

[00:05:20]>> Yeah. I don't think you were here for that. No.

[00:05:22]>> But and I think we you got some we got some footage of that, too. We could clip in. Yeah. One of the challenges that I'm faced with today is the irrigation system. Check it out.

[00:05:34]Look at these pipes. Some of them are extremely close to these palm trees.

[00:05:40]>> Tell us about this cactus. What's this?

[00:05:43]>> Um I think it's oreoserius uh trolli.

[00:05:50]Um it's a shorter one. It comes from the Andes. I'm not sure if it was Peru or Ecuador or whatnot, but it's an Andes plant. And the white is to protect it from the high altitude sun. And so that's specifically why it showers itself with white to protect its skin underneath. It's maybe like sunscreen.

[00:06:14]Yeah, it's a beautiful plant. The reason why I like it is is it's a different color. It's a different texture. It's a different shape. So, it works well with the golden barrel or other other plants.

[00:06:28]And so, it's a it's a beautiful plant.

[00:06:30]Once again, it doesn't grow big and it pups down below. So, you can cut those pups off and plant them and they're going to look just like that one in five, six years, maybe faster. And I love the spines and the spines are uh well shaped. You can see it's healthy by the top right here at the top. When it's growing at the top, you know it's healthy. When the spines are growing right out of that top, that's a sign of a healthy healthy cactus.

[00:06:56]>> One of the questions that I get asked the most is just about soil. So, I wanted to have you talk about the soil, uh, the kind of soil that we have in Fall Brook, and also if you were to pot, uh, cactus and succulents, the kind of soil that you would use. But first, talk about what we got here. The most important is drainage. So you you want you want to make sure that you've got some drainage in your soil. A lot of times they mix it with a quarter sand and have different mixes, but you really don't need a high amount of nitrogen or any of the above. If think about cactus, it grows in the desert. It grows where there's not a bunch of it's not fertile.

[00:07:41]It's not It doesn't have a lot of of uh stuff in it that so many plants need.

[00:07:47]You can overdo it. You really don't need a bunch. This is de out in these hills is a decomposed granite.

[00:07:54]>> Walk over and walk. It's literally one of the best soils to have because the water just drains right through it.

[00:08:03]Cactus like to have their feet wet for a short short time.

[00:08:10]water deep and get off it until the sand completely the soil completely dries out completely. If you don't, you're going to you're going to ruin your cactus.

[00:08:21]>> So, this is just all decomposed granite.

[00:08:25]>> And this is uh decomposed granite. We throw a little supplement on every once in a while, but frankly, this this soil as it stands is is great. Also, it was an avocado farm at one time and there was a lot of supplement leaves and supplement triple 15 that was put on underneath that and that's in the soil still to this day.

[00:08:51]>> How long ago did you have the avocado farm?

[00:08:53]>> My children say I ruined their childhood by cutting the avocado trees down, but that was probably 20 years ago.

[00:09:00]>> That was a long time ago.

[00:09:01]>> Yeah. Well, they're still not happy with me because I cut their their childhood down.

[00:09:05]>> That's pretty brutal. Why'd you cut it down?

[00:09:09]>> Because of the water. You know, you can have a one good year in avocados that make up for four or five bad years. But like, so like it's farming, man. You got that little flower that's going to turn into an avocado. Oh, it turns 95 for 6 days. That flower done.

[00:09:25]>> You lost your bloom. Oh, you're screwed.

[00:09:27]You don't get any crop that year because a big old wind comes through and your avocados are about this size, but not they don't have any oil content in them yet. They're just cruising along.

[00:09:36]They're getting there and the wind comes and half your half your crop is worthless and on the ground.

[00:09:42]>> Got it.

[00:09:43]>> Farming Farming is not that great.

[00:09:46]>> So cacti, get your cacti.

[00:09:47]>> So cacti is once again, you know.

[00:09:50]>> So what about like uh a lot of people live in colder climates, so they're doing a mix of like indoor, outdoor, in pots. If you were doing these plants in pots, how would you make soil? What would your mix be?

[00:10:06]>> A quarter sand or some kind of pummus.

[00:10:08]Some uh Pete moss, not too much. And the regular just regular dirt.

[00:10:14]>> I don't know. Another quarter Pete moss.

[00:10:17]>> That much?

[00:10:17]>> Yeah, maybe a little less. And then dirt.

[00:10:20]>> And then just your basic dirt.

[00:10:22]>> When you say basic dirt, like dirt that you get from a store. What do you mean?

[00:10:25]>> No. So like the cheaper way to do it is go to these where they sell um rocks and 3/4 inch and that stuff. They also sell dirt. A lot of these big companies sell dirt. You call them up and they go, "I need a half ton. I need a ton of dirt."

[00:10:40]And they'll go, "What do you want? What do you want it for?" And they'll give you the mix and you'll go, "This is the mix I want." And you can get it.

[00:10:47]>> And it's a cheap way to buy dirt, you know, very cheap way to buy dirt.

[00:10:51]They'll drop it off, dump it.

[00:10:52]>> Let's make it super simple. Let's say >> you call up like a a local What kind of company are you searching?

[00:10:58]>> Materials. They call it materials. Okay.

[00:11:00]They call them materials where they sell rock of different landscape types, soils of different land landscape types, and yeah, they rock and soil. That's what they haul it around.

[00:11:13]>> And you just call them and say, "Do you have dirt that I can buy?"

[00:11:16]>> Yeah. And they'll give you a mix, and they'll mix it for you. Um, >> what mix are you asking for?

[00:11:21]>> You you you ask them, "What kind you got?" And you ask them specifically what you're thinking about, and they they pretty much know what to give you.

[00:11:28]>> Okay? Like if you say I'm planting cactus, they'll know what to give you.

[00:11:31]>> Yeah. And I'm sorry, I don't know, but I just know a few things. And I'm not I'm not gonna say something that I don't know.

[00:11:40]>> We'll just say we don't know it. We don't cuz we honestly we don't pot too many plants. Like >> potting is tough. You can you can rot it out quick. You can't You got to always watch it. You got to watch your sprinkler system in the ground. They grow faster, healthier, quicker as long as you can put a sprinkler system on it.

[00:11:58]And the sprinkler system's not bad when you got it all full.

[00:12:01]>> Yeah.

[00:12:01]>> You know, you're not like just watering a sprinkler system with one plant.

[00:12:06]>> So, you can still optimize it.

[00:12:08]>> Nice. So, a question that it gets asked is sometimes uh golden barrel cactus will grow pups on the side of them like this. And people want to know like are you actually able to take these off?

[00:12:21]>> I did that with this cactus. This one right here.

[00:12:24]>> Yes. I pulled them off the side and it wasn't didn't look good. There's actually a hole right here where one of them was which I pulled. I think that's what stimulated all these pups around there. You know, if you pull those off, they're going to there's going to be some substantial scars in that area. I should probably do it again. Just experimenting.

[00:12:45]>> What happens with the ones you pulled off? Do they grow?

[00:12:47]>> I I you know what? I'm sure they will if you if you calcify them right and let them let them hang out. The thing is when you pull something off, it's wet and pulpy. If you plant that in the ground, it's a s it's like a still a bleed. It's wet and bleeding. When that cal when it calcifies over, scal scales up, that's when you plant it. So like even when you plant rooted plants, if you cut those roots a little bit, there's a sensitive spot. You should probably give it a week or so and let those tiny little tips at the end of your root calcify over before you just want it super dry.

[00:13:20]>> You want it dry everywhere. Yeah, >> this was my first cactus that I planted like a long long time ago. And this would be >> Well, I thought you said it was the Puvianis.

[00:13:29]>> No, the Puvianis is down there. This was like I just planted this one like 20 years ago, but >> just for fun kind of like >> Yeah, I wasn't enthused with cactus and I I abused this one and otherwise it would be much much bigger and happier.

[00:13:42]>> So, this one's like 20 years old.

[00:13:43]>> Yeah, but it was abused. It could be much bigger and much happier. But even if you abuse them, it still looks pretty. How how how big was it when you planted it?

[00:13:53]>> Small. Small. It was about Oh, about little pineapple size.

[00:13:59]>> Nice.

[00:14:00]>> So, and then this is seed.

[00:14:04]If I could get it without getting spiked.

[00:14:07]This is seed. You take this off and then you take this dude. See all that black seed in there? It's insane.

[00:14:18]And there's a ton of it. Those are healthy seeds.

[00:14:22]>> How many?

[00:14:22]>> I think there's three 400 in each one of these. Do not quote me on that either, but there's a lot of seed.

[00:14:29]>> Oh, yeah. How many How many get a lot?

[00:14:31]>> In fact, I propagated. I knocked on I do these thing. I knocked on people's doors and go, "Hey, pardon me. You look like you have a lot of flowers on the top of your golden barrels and can I just go pluck it?" And they're looking at me like, "What are you talking about?" I go, "I won't harm the plant or do anything." And after a while, after I keep talking for about 5 minutes, they go, "Go ahead. Go ahead. Get away from me, but go ahead and do it." And so that's what I do. And I actually propagated a lot myself. Dried the seed, put it in. And my suggestion on that is plant it super thick. And I got an exciting announcement. We're actually going to start selling uh some seeds.

[00:15:07]So, you know, I think in about a week or two, once I get it all set up, you'll be able to to buy them on your own. Or, you know, you could just knock on someone's door and >> do that.

[00:15:18]>> Do that. You don't need to buy them from us.

[00:15:21]>> Also, um, I've heard where I haven't done this, but I'd probably like to do it sometime. Get a long drill bit about that long.

[00:15:29]>> Drill right through the mother-in-law's cushions down. Don't hit the roots on the bottom, but drill down about this deep, like this, cuz it's going to freak the plant out. And when a plants get freaked out, you know what they do? They they go into survival mode. So, I don't even know what this thing would do if you went into survival mode. Would it pop a bunch of more pups? Would it What would it do? Would it cover it up? But I've I've I've I've heard multiple people say they drill they core it right out of the middle. They don't hit the roots at the bottom and they pull it out and they go and I don't suggest you do that, but I'm thinking about, you know, >> you probably do it just because you got thousands of golden >> barrels. I'm thinking of probably doing one just to see and then I can get back to you on on that. Yep. Mistake. Don't do it.

[00:16:15]>> A lot of people are talking about moisture meters. Your thoughts. Is it worth it or kind of a waste of money and why?

[00:16:25]>> So, I mean, they probably work for like groves, big nurseries. But if you have a few pots in the backyard, I don't think you need a moisture meter. You just need to look at it, do a little digging, make sure that the soil's uh, you know, not where it's supposed to be. Dried out.

[00:16:41]Then you water it and depending on the plant and whatnot, but I you know and then you have to have the moisture meter hooked up to some kind of software that tells you when to water. But if you're if you got a big company, yeah, moisture meters are definitely definitely the way to go because your your water bill and your expenses are huge and you want to make sure you optimize everything in regards to that.

[00:17:05]>> But if you got a couple pots like those one, those tiny little one. No, never.

[00:17:09]>> Never. Is that just for like cactus and succulents or do you think for like all plants? You don't really plants.

[00:17:14]>> Yeah. Just check it out.

[00:17:16]>> Yeah.

[00:17:16]>> Yeah.

[00:17:17]>> Don't get those small ones. Okay. Let's talk cold hearty plants like zone 7 cold winter. What's a type of cactus uh that would survive that kind of climate in the outdoors? Not not like Yeah. So I you know I mean when you're talking that makes me think of like Arizona, the highlands of Arizona where there's some snow and it's desert and snow blah blah.

[00:17:41]I did acquire a couple books in regards to uh cactus in New Mexico and northern Arizona and mostly they're hedgehogs.

[00:17:52]They're called hedgehogs. Yeah.

[00:17:53]>> And they're the cold resistant ones. But still I don't think there's a do not quote me. I don't think there's a whole heck of a lot of uh cold uh hardy.

[00:18:04]Remember, cold and hardy are basically the same word that's available. You're driving through that area. You're not you when you're looking out there, you don't see a bunch of cactus growing that you do in in outside of Phoenix or outside of those areas where you actually see saros and different kinds of cactus. So, >> yeah. Um, >> there's a few, but not that many.

[00:18:29]>> But there there are there are there are a few. And I'm once again, I'm not an expert. But hedgehogs, hedgehogs is what you're looking for.

[00:18:35]>> Somebody that's just getting into plants, specifically cactus. What do you think is a big mistake that they all make that you can help them avoid?

[00:18:44]>> First step, second step, third step is overwatering.

[00:18:47]>> Yeah.

[00:18:48]>> I mean, you can stack the first five or do not water that much. Realize it's desert plant. You will kill it if you water it too much or its feet stay wet for too long.

[00:19:02]And you're not going to ever overkill a cactus from not watering enough. It'll dry. It won't look happy. It's its ribs will come in, but you can always plump it out pretty darn quick with a with a good watering. Do not overwater. You don't have to baby your cactus whatsoever. If you baby it, you know, you're going to probably hurt it. you know, you're gonna some way you're gonna be too nice to it.

[00:19:27]It likes just doing its deal and it's very happy doing its deal. And that's another reason why I like it so much is because it's so resistant. Now, no plants are bulletproof.

[00:19:41]Cactus still get diseases. Cactus still need water. Cactus still needs uh all the aspects of a normal plant.

[00:19:48]>> Just a lot worse. It's the most bulletproof plant that I could find out there, the cactus varieties. So, that's I'm old and I'm into efficiency.

[00:19:58]That's why I like them so much.

[00:20:00]>> What's one thing that you know now that you wish you knew when you started all of this?

[00:20:06]>> Uh the the the same answer that always comes to mind is is I would have um diagrammed every little piece. I'd get a giant map and I would diagram my sprinkler system, what I was going to plant, how much I was going to plant, what optimize every little ounce with detailed landscaping. Even if it's a nursery, I did so many mistakes like, you know, where do you where do you find that? You know, in this, you know, is it over there? Is it here? You'd have it all diagrammed properly put into place so you knew where everything was. You plant a specific amount. You plant at different degrees and angles and all that other stuff. So yeah, I would the most thing it seems it's just you do it on a different scale when you do landscaping. You know, you got your house there. Get a bird's eye view of it and then just nail every plant where you're going to put it, where your sprinkler systems going. Uh is it going to get full water? Um, is this going to block your window uh to your to your you know your giant tree in front of your window? You used to like looking out that window. All aspects.

[00:21:18]And then have a couple experts, which I didn't do. Look it over and analyze and say, "No, don't do this. No, don't do that." Ask for help. So, um, >> which is why I ask you a ton for help.

[00:21:31]>> And I'm not the expert, so you need to be asking me and some other people.

[00:21:35]Yeah. you know, um, and keep going, you know, put the rains on every morning and keep going. A lot of people, they, you know, they stop, but you you got to just like, okay, I made a bunch of mistakes, but you know what? I'm still going and I'm still working. And that's part of life is making the mistakes.

[00:21:57]>> Tim's 10 best cactus to grow in Southern California. Starting with number one, the Golden Barrel Cactus. Number two, the silver torch. Number three, the Mexican fence post. Number four, the Argentine sawarro. Number five, the Mexican lime cactus. Number six, the blue barrel. Number seven, the devil's tongue. Number eight, Old Man of the Andes. Number nine, the Moroccan Mound.

[00:22:28]Technically a Euphoria. And number 10, the Tricoserius Hybrid. And that's your list. Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for watching that video. Your support means a lot. Your interest means a lot. So, all the comments that I read, they bring a smile to my face. So, thank you. And if you aren't already, be sure to like and subscribe so you can get notified the next time I do cool videos like this. But until then, peace.

[00:23:01]I can't help you.